Pottstown man admits passing fake prescriptions at local pharmacies

NORRISTOWN — A Pottstown man has been sent to jail while he awaits sentencing for passing or attempting to pass fraudulent prescriptions at pharmacies in the borough and Lower Pottsgrove.

James Isiah Reese, 29, of the 500 block of King Street, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to felony charges of obtaining drugs by fraud or misrepresentation and attempted prescription fraud in connection with two incidents that occurred in December 2012.

Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about Reese, who will undergo drug and alcohol evaluations. Demchick-Alloy remanded Reese to the county jail without bail to await his sentencing hearing.

Reese potentially faces several years in prison on the charges.

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An investigation began on Dec. 6, 2012, when Pottstown police responded to the Medicine Shoppe on North Charlotte Street to take a pharmacist’s report of fraudulent prescriptions being brought to the business, according to court documents. An investigation determined Reese submitted three fraudulent prescriptions to the store, including for the drugs Percocet and oxycodone, between Nov. 19 and Dec. 6, according to the criminal complaint, filed by Pottstown Detective Brooke Fisher.

The prescriptions supposedly were written by Philadelphia doctors or medical facilities. However, the investigation determined those doctors and medical facilities indicated Reese was not their patient and was never prescribed the medications, according to the arrest affidavit.

Investigators learned Reese also attempted to pass a fraudulent prescription for a medication containing codeine at the CVS Pharmacy on North Charlotte Street in Lower Pottsgrove on Dec. 13, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Lower Pottsgrove Police Officer Daniel Kienle. Police encountered Reese at the store after a pharmacist notified police about a suspicious person trying to pass an unauthorized prescription.

“Through the course of my investigation it was found that the prescription had been written on a prescription pad that had been stolen,” Kienle alleged in the arrest affidavit, adding a doctor did not issue the prescription to Reese.

Reese was immediately taken into custody by police, court documents indicate.